Despite the ample tree coverage at our cosy camper van campsite, we woke to a bit of ice on the inside of the windows. We crawled out from our double comforter and into the cab, where the heat was fully operational, and made our way to Mt. Whakapapa before 7:30am. At the mountain, we had our breakfast and coffee and suited up to ride a half day so that we could stop at Parts and Services (a real business name!) to have our heat looked at. Mt. Whakapapa was ridiculous. There were so many dips and valleys, cliff drops, ridges, and natural features, AJ was salivating at the ticket office. And the conditions were amazing. Another blue bird day around 30 degrees Fahrenheit at a mountain that rarely has good visibility days. The terrain was a different kind of wide open from Turoa, more gorges and rocks. Tim Parker if you're reading this blog, you would have had a boner all day.
Part of the mountain was only accessible via a t-bar since one lift was not running. For those of you unfamiliar with what a t-bar is, allow me to explain my disdain for this shitty contraption that I failed to ride all the way to the top. A t-shaped rubber bar is suspended by a pulley system and in an ideal world, you stick this bar between your legs (if you're a snowboarder, screw you skiers who simply sit on it like a swing) and you hold onto the rope as it pulls you up the mountain. Unfortunately, it is very easy to catch an edge (aka wipe out), especially when the rope slackens at the top of a hill. So I attempted this rope tow four times with varying degrees of success. The first attempt I made it maybe 1/4 of the way up, caught an edge, and proceeded to hang on, like the female superhero I am, attempting to stand first, and when this wasn't possible, permitting myself to be drug up the mountain in side boat (thank goodness for my yoga practice and ab ripper x) so that only my hip was touching the ground (shoulder and board out of harms way). But I was only halfway up the incline and there were no alligators below or a terrible cliff drop, so I dropped the rope and buckled inti my board at the side of the rope tow line. I attempted the tow four more times before AJ made me quit. If I had had my way, I would not have quit until each knee was throughly bruised and I mastered that bugger. But it was possible to ride the rest of the mountain, and I had breezed down the icy chute. I will have an opportunity to rematch the villainous t-bar in the south island.
We rode until a little after 12 and went back to the ticket window to receive our half day refund (the way half day riding works here). To our good fortune, the young man working the window, cheerily refunded our tickets entirely...so my initial t-bar lesson and half day of riding was free.
After lunch in the camper van we made our way to Taupo to have a look at the heat and to check out a hot springs. The heat was not repairable! Despite Philip's best efforts, we were fated to spend another heatless night in the north island. But we plan to have the heater swapped out in Gisborne, our next spot. It was too late in the day to hit the hot springs, so we hoped back on the road and rolled into a free camping site under a bridge halfway between Napier and Gisborne. The campsite had the classic feel of a horror movie setting, and each time a logging truck blasted over the bridge, our camper van shuttered.
AJ took a shower while I started dinner, the start of a relaxing evening. But the lights faltered and the auxiliary battery was quite low. When I showered, I had just enough time to run conditioner through my hair and soap up (about 5 minutes when I'm really hustling, and I was) before the water went glacier cold and promptly stopped. I would rinse the soap off my body with water in AJ's thermos. But I was clean and fed, and it was warmer here than it had been at the base of the mountains, so it was a good night.
And in true horror movie style, we had no service whatsoever.
This morning, we're on the road to Gisborne, chasing surf and a functioning heater. And a hose to fill up our water.
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